11/16/06

Mine Is Better Than Yours

Yesterday there was drama on the microtia board, and believe it or not, I stayed out of it. It was hard though, because one comment really pissed me off. Now don't get me wrong, I love internet drama (as most of you know) (okay...I love drama period), but I strongly feel that the microtia board is not the place for it. Yet lately, people get offended at anything and pick on others. It's just so....wrong.

So this poster actually had the audacity to write that a mother's child had "one of the mildest afflictions" on the board, implying that therefore she had no right to post her opinion on something. I haven't been that offended by someone on the internet in awhile. But you'll be so proud of me (or maybe you won't): I started to rip off a pissed off reply and then stopped. Didn't want to keep the stupid argument going.

This comment made me so angry because it reminds me of the way I felt when I was looking for local support and went to a local About Face meeting. I got the impression that people felt that our issue just wasn't big enough to matter.

I also used to really hate it when people would say, "Oh, it could be worse. There are kids that are dying you know." Well, no shit. You think I didn't know that? You think I'm not grateful that I have a healthy child?

By saying that, all you are saying is that my own pain doesn't count. Every parent that has a child that has something that may cause them some difficulty or pain later in life is going to be upset. There's just no sense in comparing it to something different or "worse." Their pain is their pain and support them. Don't belittle it.
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Recent Reads:

"Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen" by Julie Powell: Julie decided to cook all of the recipes in Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" in one year and blog her experiences. Meanwhile she also dealt with a major move and a small NY apartment with many problems. I really liked this book, although some of the recipes were disgusting. I not-so-secretly long to be a foodie, but I'm not sure I'm up to aspic (made with bone marrow--the extraction was particularly horrifying) or brains. Can you be a foodie and not like organs? I know Tony Bourdain says you can't. It was a really fun book, and I'll follow her blog now (another added to my already too long list). It got a little slow in the middle, but picked up again, and by the end I was sad to see the 365 days end.

Gotta run: will add two more books later.